Rise and Scribe Podcast: Alex Wong aka @Steven_LeBron

The Rise and Scribe podcast returns. This week, my guest is Alex Wong, whom most of you probably know as the inimitable (I hope I used that word right, I just really wanted to use it) Steven LeBron. Alex/Steven has written all over the place, including GQ, Rolling Stone, Grantland and Sports on Earth.

First, Alex/Steven and I discuss how he got his start. Similar to a lot of us aspiring writers, he started off in a completely different profession, only to decide later on that he wanted to be a writer. What spurred him to ditch his day job in favor of writing? Why in the world would he do that? We then move to a discussion about that awful, awesome thing known as Twitter. How did it help his writing? What’s the difference between basketball twitter and the rest of twitter? What’s it like when you meet those “internet friends” in real life?

From there, we talk about some of his favorite pieces, and his process behind them. How, exactly, did he come to write about Aubrey Plaza’s basketball team? Why did he decide to chronicle one man’s obsession with playing Michael Jordan one-on-one? Which piece made him feel as if he truly “made it,” and which writers/editors helped him along the way? We also talk about the writing process overall, developing ones voice, and reading for pleasure versus reading, for lack of a better word, analytically.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/181200193″]